Call Number:

12H.Burroughs

Repository:

Bryn Mawr College

Extent:

1 boxes

Language:

English

Date:

1921-1988 (inclusive) and 1922-1926 (bulk)

Abstract:

Elizabeth Burroughs Kelley attended Bryn Mawr College, graduating magna cum laude in 1926. Her collection is primarily composed of correspondence between Burroughs and her parents during Burroughs' time at Bryn Mawr College. The collection, which ranges between 1921-1988, also contains a publication and other materials. It evidences the experiences of a young woman attending college during the early 20th century.

Elizabeth (Kelley) Burroughs is the granddaughter of the late-19th to early-20th century naturalist-writer John Burroughs. She attended Bryn Mawr at the recommendation of the neighbor and family friend, Hilda Worthington Smith, who was then the Dean of Bryn Mawr. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College in 1926, Burroughs embarked on a career of teaching at several preparatory schools, including The Kirk School in Bryn Mawr, PA; The Madeira School in Washington, D.C.; the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia; the College Preparatory School in Cincinnati; and the Kent Place School in Summit, New Jersey. At four of these schools, she was also the advisor for school publications. In 1942, Burroughs married Hugh Bentley Kelley. In 1954, following the death of her father, she retired from teaching to pursue fully her career as literary executor for her grandfather John Burroughs, as editor of both his works and those of her father, and as a lecturer and writer in her own right. She continued to paint portraits on commission.

The Elizabeth Burroughs (Kelley) collection is primarily composed of correspondence between Burroughs and her parents during Burroughs' time at Bryn Mawr College. The collection, which ranges between also contains a publication and other materials. It evidences the experiences of a young woman attending college during the early 20th century.

The collection is housed in 1 box, and is divided between 12 folders, ten of which contain correspondence between Burroughs and her family.

Folder 1 contains "Bryn Mawr Memories," a 1988 publication written by Burroughs about her time at college. Folders 2-5 contain correspondence from Burroughs' freshman year. Folder 6 contains correspondence from the summer of 1923, from Bates House. Folders 7-8 contain correspondence from sophomore year. Folders 9-10 contain correspondence from junior year. Folder 11 contains correspondence from senior year. Folder 12 contains items relating to Hilda Worthington Smith, a family friend and at one time Dean at Bryn Mawr College.

Though the letters express Burroughs's depth of feeling for her family (the majority of the letters are addressed to her mother, however, several are addressed to her father), they are also a valuable source of information about her own private concerns--religious, financial, scholarly, issues of peer-relations--and the moeurs and traditions of student life at Bryn Mawr College of the 1920s.